Your Paw-some Question | Will vaccines always hurt?

Cosmo and I learn about shots—and new technology our friend WSU's Roland Chen is working on to make painless vaccines.

• Learn more about microarray patches 
• Find out how vaccines work with the Amoeba Sisters and why we get vaccines with SciShow Kids
• Check out how other vaccine technology gets rolled out, from Ted-Ed

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Transcript

Hey Dr. Universe, what’s a cat’s favorite thing about shots?

Hmm…tell me!

They’re purr-ventative medicine!

Hey, friends. I’m Dr. Universe.

And I’m Cosmo.

And if you’re anything like us, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. Today’s question comes from Jacob, who’s wondering if vaccines will always hurt.

Sometimes I get anxious before I visit the veterinarian because I might have to get a shot.

Me, too, Cosmo. But I do love that vaccines keep us from getting sick. 

I asked my friend Roland Chen about it. He’s an engineer at Washington State University, and he’s working on brand new technology that could make shots painless.

He told me that shots hurt because the needle goes all the way to a pain receptor. But what if we could get shots with microneedles. They’re about one third to half the size of a regular needle.

Whoa, so…teeny-tiny needles?

Exactly! Most vaccines are intramuscular injections. A trained healthcare provider gently slides a hollow needle into the skin all the way to the muscle. 

Muscles have lots of blood vessels. So, the vaccine quickly moves into the bloodstream and travels all over the body.

Muscles also have immune cells. They use a tiny bit of germ that’s inside the vaccine to teach your body to recognize and fight the real germ.

But here’s the cool part: your skin has itty bitty blood vessels and immune cells, too.

Instead of a long, pokey needle, a microneedle array is a patch that looks kind of like a Band-Aid. It has super tiny needles that only scratch the very top layer of your skin, where they deliver the vaccine.

So it’s just a little scratch?

That’s right! Supposedly, it feels like a cat’s scratchy tongue. That might be a weird sensation, but it doesn’t hurt.

Wow!

Not only that—it’s easier to use and throw away this kind of shot. Anybody can apply the patch, and afterward it just goes into the trash instead of a special container for needles. 

That’s a big deal for places where there aren’t enough doctors and nurses and pharmacists to get people the shots they need.  

Dr. Chen is working on these patches to help people with eye diseases. They have to get regular shots in their eyeballs. So, these new shots would make that much more comfortable. And less scary.

That sounds amazing. So…when do we get these cool bandaid shots?

Well, it takes time to test new medical technology. Scientists need to make sure it’s safe, reliable, and easy to make and send in the mail. Bu there’s a good chance we’ll see pain-free shots in the next 3 to 5 years.

That could help more people get life-saving vaccines.  

That’s something we all need-le.

That’s all for this episode, friends.

Big thanks to Roland Chen of Washington State University.

As always, if you’ve got a science question for me, you can send it to askdruniverse.wsu.edu. That’s A-S-K-D-R-U-N-I-V-E-R-S-E dot W-S-U dot E-D-U.

Who knows where your questions will take us next!